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List Price: $28.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 14
Released: December 15, 2009 |
| Our Price: $14.55 |
| Used Price: $13.93 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A LAS VEGAS-SET COMEDY CENTERED AROUND THREE GROOMSMEN WHO LOSE THEIR ABOUT-TO-BE-WED BUDDY DURING THEIR DRUNKEN MISADVENTURES, THEN MUST RETRACE THEIR STEPS IN ORDER TO FIND HIM.
Description of The Hangover (R-Rated Single-Disc Edition):
If you like your humor broadside up, hold the subtlety, you'll want to nurse this Hangover with your best buds. The ensemble cast meshes perfectly--it's like a super-R-rated episode of Friends: silly, slapstick, and completely in the viewer's face. When four pals go to Vegas to celebrate the imminent nuptials of one of them, they partake in a rooftop toast to "a night we'll never forget." But they're in for a big surprise: their celebration drinks were laced with date-rape drugs, so when they awake in their hotel room 12 hours later, not only are they hung over, but they can't remember what they did all night long. Oh, and they're missing the groom-to-be.
The film is so cheerfully raunchy, so fiercely crude, that the humor becomes as intoxicating as the mind-altering substances. The standout in the ensemble is Zach Galifianakis, who is alternately creepy and hilarious. Ed Helm (The Office), in addition to his memory, loses a tooth in uncomfortably realistic fashion, and Bradley Cooper (He's Just Not That into You) has deadpan comic timing that whips along at the speed of light. "Ma'am, you have an incredible rack," he blares to a pedestrian from the squad car the guys have "borrowed." "I should have been a [bleeping] cop," he tells himself approvingly.
Director Todd Phillips brings back his deft handling of the actors and the dude humor that worked so well in Old School, as well as the unctuous Dan Finnerty, memorable as a lounge/wedding singer in both films. But it's the nonstop volley of jokes--most cheerily politically incorrect--that grabs the audience and thrashes it around the hotel room. Just watch out for the tiger in the bathroom. --A.T. Hurley
The Hangover (R-Rated Single-Disc Edition) Reviews:
Ripoff of "Dude Where's My Car" 
2009-12-23 - Let me first start by saying Zach Galifianakis is the best (and the only) funny thing about "The Hangover". He finally gets his due after years of underrated movies (i.e. "Out Cold"), hilarious online video skits (i.e. "Between Two Ferns"), and Comedy Central specials. If it wasn't for Zach G., I would have absolutely hated this movie and would have given it 1 star.
So why my utter disappointment in this movie? It's a tale of two halves. The first half is where Zach's tried and true character/persona of acting dumber than dirt, shines the most. Yes, he plays this same persona in his comedy act and any movie he's ever been in, but he absolutely kills it and is hilarious. It never gets old. The beginning part of the movie shows a lot of promise to be a comedy classic.
Unfortunately, after their infamous drink on the rooftop that transitions their saga to the next morning, the second half of the movie completely falls flat. I really can't remember laughing once. Tiger in the bathroom? Awkward Mike Tyson appearance? Cliché Vegas wedding no one remembers? I understand they're going for cheap laughs with this uninspired circumstantial humor, but it just doesn't get the laughs from me. I'm all about stupid humor (like what Zach G., Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey, etc. are so famous for), however it must be witty. Any writer hack can throw in a random circumstance out of left field... it simply doesn't take any creativity.
So on to why this movie really falls flat. "The Hangover" plot comes straight from the script pages of "Dude Where's My Car". Shocked? Perplexed? In denial? Google the movie titles together and you'll see a College Humor video that does a quick side-by-side comparison of the two (I'd post a link myself but it would get deleted by Amazon). I understand this movie came out several years ago with comedy lightweights Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott. And I understand the humor is extremely sophomoric (which is also the case in The Hangover). I also understand that movies/books/comedians/artists steal material from each other all of the time. But the humor on "Dude Where's My Car" was better executed than in the 2nd half of "The Hangover" (which isn't saying much). It probably also helped that the prior film trail-blazed the concept/formula before the subsequent rip-off by "The Hangover", causing it to be really watered-down for me. If you or most other people would have seen "Dude" before they saw "Hangover", you'd have the same feeling of being cheated after all of the insane hype I had heard.
Given the choice, I'd have the first half of the "Hangover" and the second half of "Dude Where's My Car" meshed into one hilarious movie. I rate "Hangover" 2.5 stars. I can only rate whole stars, but I figure I'd go with the 2 since this movie is already overrated on Amazon. It's a tough thing to be a dissenter of such an over-hyped comedy movie (I'm prepared to get a lot of "Unhelpful" check marks on here from die-hards), but I want to let you know that I really tried to like this movie. This kind of movie is right in my wheelhouse. It just wasn't original enough or funny enough. Truth hurts.
no no no no no 
2009-12-23 - can I have my money back?
can I have my time back?
can I have my one star back?
how did this move get so over-rated???
If you don't have a sense of humor, don't buy it!! 
2009-12-23 - If you don't have a sense of humor, don't buy it!! If you do have a sense of humor, You will LOVE IT!! BUY IT NOW!! Hysterical movie..Funniest one I have seen in a long time.
4 1/2 Star Hilarious 
2009-12-22 - From the director of Old School, which was a riot itself, Todd Phillips directs an awesome cast that did a heck of
a job making this movie what it is, hilarious. The only people that would not really like this type of movie are people who
don't like Vegas or having an adventuresome night. This one was a lot of fun.
Wildly Inappropriate?
2009-12-21 - I read a review on Rotten Tomatoes that referred to the scene with the baby being used as part of a sexually explicit gag as "wildly inappropriate." Wildly inappropriate? I don't think that covers it. When did it become acceptable to use a baby in ANY kind of gag that is sexual at all? This went way beyond inappropriate. Children of any age ought to be beyond fair game for such things. Using a child in a sexually explicit manner is wrong whether it's in actuality or merely being suggested. You just don't use children in that way. It's a line we should not cross. This is the first movie I've run into that has such a scene in it, I hope it's not a trend. The fact that the individual using the child during this over-the-line gag had earlier in the movie been identified as a possible child predator only makes it all the more repugnant. Going in I expected frat-boy style gags. I expected swearing and vomiting and men behaving like boys. I never expected to see an adult male miming masturbation of a toddler with what appears to be the child's own hand. It was a bit shocking actually. This wasn't the funniest movie I've ever seen, not even close, but even if it were, the business with the baby alone was enough to make me dislike it. There's just no coming back from a transgression like that. This review is aimed at the unrated version of the film btw, I'm not sure this scene made it into the R version.
